Photo by Ron Sinfelt

How long it will last is anybody's guess, including highly touted meteorologists of TV fame. However, if Indiana weather follows the form sheet of most Hoosier winters, first ice suitable for fishing will skid into our northern tier counties (roughly the northern one-third of the state) about the same time that Santa arrives.

A look at first-ice journals of the past two winters, the last decade, or probably even winters of the Neolithic Age, graphically tell the unchanging story. Indiana is a Midwestern state and the ice gods bide their time in bringing us hardwater for fishing. Hoosiers have come to expect it.

For example, consider last winter's ice-up calendar. As reported by Larry Stover, owner/operator of The Tackle Box at North Webster (the heart of Kosciusko County's natural lake region), brave souls started fishing the channels of larger lakes on the Sunday before Christmas (Dec. 19 to be exact).

Soon thereafter, an Alberta clipper hit northern Indiana. The inch of ice that opened the fishing crept out to open-water areas (the deeper water) of larger lakes in what appeared to be the beginning of winter-long hard-water angling. But it wasn't to be. A warming trend came soon after Christmas, and by New Year's Day, Hoosier ice-fishermen were scratching their heads in wonderment that the ice was gone, or at least very unsafe. Stover said that while anglers fished the channels of the larger lakes through the holidays, ice was not really safe. The warming trend of the last days of December ran into January and halted hardwater angling until after mid-January.

However, Stover said another blitz of winter hit the northern tier counties with lows of minus 12 and 11, respectively, on Jan. 18 and 19 and that set the stage for safe-ice conditions until another period of 40-plus high temperatures hit on March 19 (50 degrees).

With Indiana weather being influenced by at least four weather zones, and prevailing southwest winds, ice-anglers must live by the old Indiana saw: "If you don't like our weather, just wait a minute." Hence, ice-fishing is a play-it-by-ear deal in Hoosierland, and the northern tier counties always seem to get the high cards.

Still, the dealer usually doles out some old-fashioned winter weather to the central and southern parts of the state before the sun heads north, and this often offers some safe-ice periods, especially on smaller lakes, farm ponds, and other small standing waters. But the larger lakes and reservoirs of central and southern parts of the state seldom offer safe ice.

Generally, though, ice-fishing in Indiana centers on the four Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) management districts that make up roughly the northern one-third of the state. Districts 2 and 3 are the heart of Indiana's natural (glacial) lake county. However, natural lakes occur, though less prominently, in other parts of the state as well.

District 1 is composed of 16 counties in the extreme northwestern corner of the state. Roughly, it is four counties wide and deep.

District 2 is made up of the three counties that border Michigan in the northeastern corner of the state. County by county, District 2 probably has more natural lake water than any of the others. Counties here include Elkhart, LaGrange and Steuben.